: Mon Apr 13, 2009 8:13 pm
So, there we have it then ... All down to a couple of interceptions.
Silly me !
We gifted more interceptions on a plate in one game, than we did in the whole of last season.
It is not just one thing, but there are some very concerning points with how things have gone over the past few weeks.
Everyone gave the team time to adjust to getting back in to the swing of things after the World Cup, hence the slow start to the season. Fair enough.
Everyone hoped the team would be building up to the World Club game, but that came and went.
We were going to give Saints a real game, we were told. We didn't.
We were going to take Bradford to the cleaners. We didn't.
We allowed one of the poorest teams in the league to run all over us and make them look good.
- Toopi has never been adequately replaced. The make, do & mend effort of Ablett is finally coming undone. He is merely a stop-gap and not a solution to the centre problem. At times the lad doesn't know if he is supposed to be a centre or 2nd row.
- Ellis has not been adequately replaced. OK, no-one could predict the Eastwood fiasco, but the minute it was turning sour, we should have been back on the plane to Sydney to see what we could find as a replacement. No-one is telling me that there aren't reasonable players in Australia, who could negotiate a release, who wouldn't want to come to the English champions ?
- Tansey / Scruton etc have not been replaced.
- I heared a little rumour today that one of the causes of strife in the camp is Buderus and the size of his wage packet. I've no doubt that on paper he's a class player, I am yet to see it for myself.
- There is no excuse for being an alledged £130K plus under the cap limit, yet have the team struggling to the bare bones and not have key players replaced.
- Why after years of mediocrity, has no-one addressed our lack of a half-decent tactical kicking game ?
- Our youth / academy set up has gone backwards
- We're dropping off tackles like never before
- We've replaced quick, flowing football that was attractive to watch, with dull drive-up-the-middle one up football that was last seen at Headingley during the dark days of the 80s.
- Saints have decent cover in every position on the field. We do not. Why not ?
- Rather than do the hard graft and the basics right, that has got us so far in the last few years, we have reverted to a gameplan that depends principally on luck and our 'star' players conjouring something up from nothing.
- What happend to our superior fitness and the ability to keep going at the end of games, when we'd knocked the stuffing out of the opposition ?
- Why have we stopped off-loading in the tackle (or when we do, it is so telegraphed that Marconi could pick it up) ?
- If team sprit is so wonderful, why does half the team look like it doesn't want to know ?
There's more, but it is not a knee-jerk reaction to ask why we're losing so poorly and why we look rubbish. We've not been great all season, but most fans have held fire until now.
Salford are not a great side, but at least they do the basics of running, tackling and backing up to a decent standard.
